Talking with the sea
Festival Primavera Club 2010 Barcelona
The concert began in a cold way. Few people attended the concert in Barcelona’s Sala Apolo. Festivals have always tight programs and they are always hard to follow. Festival Primavera Club was in that case. I admit I felt fine knowing that I could enjoy Zola Jesus music in a comfortable way. Zola Jesus is the alter ego of the American singer Nika Roza Danilova. She’s just twenty one and radiates a powerful voice surrounded by a gothic and icy atmosphere. The sea talks to us through her music and one feels it very closer although its remoteness. The sea brings us dense fogs and red sunsets and returns to us the echo of every tear we’ve shed on it.
Deservedly, the ambient became heated by the third song. A lot of people were late but in time to fall in love with the overwhelming voice of Zola Jesus. A minimalist ambient on stage in forms and sounds shows her vocal and melodic power. Last year has been a really splendid one: she has published three records and has performed in ninety seven concerts sharing stage with bands like Fever Ray. Her recent album Stridulum II (Sacred Bones Records, 2010) gives us creativity in a bizarre aesthetics and a heartrending content.
I can’t stand starts with the lament it’s not easy to fall in love. Nothing has been easy to her but the fact is that her frenetic activity makes sense to the following sentence it’s gonna be alright. The drums in a martial rhythm reminds me Sunday, bloody Sunday by U2, but they are here following a more painful voice and firm step. Life is not easy but is full of beauty beyond the insubstantial oversimplification.
Listening to Poor animal one feels that the sun is rising just for you. The keyboards blend our personal skies. Each mind travels alone through their sounds. I’m not your savior, save me please, we’re delusional poor animal. Yes, the sun rises but reality is still as hard as it always was and we just can count on ourselves.
Night is a highlight in the album. Don’t be afraid, in the end of the night you’re in my arms. But it’s always difficult to face up the fears that are waiting for us when we leave the ordinary bus. So come close, close to me and I’ll come closer to you. Even so its sound reminds us the solitude’s impotence. When you’re lost never look down, when you’re lost know I’ll be around, in the meantime when you are found I’ll be here. Nobody can find us although it’s always helpful a lighthouse through the night. It’s a masterpiece.
Heaven can wait the better portraits of our fears in Nika’s songs despite the risk of showing oneself up. Her Sea talk already stresses I can’t give you what you need.
Text by Juan Carlos Romero
Photo 1 by Dani Canto
Photo 2 courtesy of Primavera Sound